Well, here we are with the second great story of the series, 'Chamber of Secrets'. The book opens up, as the rest of the series will, in the summer after the events of the previous book. When some special guests arrive at the Dursley's household, and Harry is forced to stay in his room, he meets a house elf named Dobby who warns him not to go back to Hogwarts. Eventually the story unfolds and we learn that something called the Chamber of Secrets gets opened up by the supposed heir of Slytherin, wherein dwells some kind of monster. Now, Harry and his friends play detective in order to find out who the heir of Slytherin is, what the monster is, and just exactly what is going on at Hogwarts. Again, there's really not much here that's different from what you see in the movie, making the movie a pretty damn decent interpretation of the story. There are a couple of things here and there that are different and interesting though (of course), like what a ghosts "deathday party" is like, and learning a little more about Filtch, the school caretaker. Overall, things do get darker and more eerie here. Much like the first, it makes for a fun adventure for kids, but will happily cater to a more mature audience as well, whereas the first just seemed to be meant for kids in the fun way it was written. Overall though, I can't say I like it any better or worse than the first. It seems to play out in a very similar style, but this one manages to balance the fun writing of the first one out with a much darker story. I guess what I'm saying is they're both good in their own ways.
Final Rating: 4/5

I suppose it was only a matter of time. I ended up thinking to myself a few things such as "I really wanna re-read this series" and "might as well get this going while 'Potter' hype is up" and of course "Hey... I have NO real books for my book review section!" Anyway, I digress. I'm currently working my way through the series again, but I'm pretty damn slow at reading so its not gonna flood the site like the movie reviews did. This book, of course, follows Harry Potter in his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Suspicious that their Dark Arts professor, Severus Snape, is after an artifact that will grant great him great power, Harry and his new found friends Ron and Hermione go on their first in a series of adventures to try and prevent this from happening. The book is really much more around the concept of the wizarding world, introducing us to potions, spells, charms, and even various foods. The overall story makes for a fun adventure for the kid in you, and by the end, indeed, it touches one's heart. The book isn't all THAT dissimilar from the first of the films, save a few extra things here and there. There's a bit more to the final challenges, a bit more to the centaur way of life, and last but not least, Neville Longbottom plays a bigger role in the book, inadvertently joining the three main kids here and there. Overall, the film ends up doing the book justice, leaving nothing all that important out. The nice thing about the book though, is just that you don't have to deal with their undeveloped acting and crappy CG effects. Overall, a great book for exercising the imagination.
Final Rating: 4/5